6 Benefits of Using Personality Testing for Hiring

Hiring decisions are some of the most impactful talent decisions HR leaders and teams can make. The right hire can skyrocket business results. Whereas the wrong hire can be costly, time-intensive, and potentially damaging to the team and organizational culture.

Making the right hire relies on collecting as much data as possible about the candidate’s potential success and fit. There are many traditional and modern solutions to help assess fit, from resume screening to different types of hiring assessments. 

Personality testing is one of these types of hiring assessments. Personality tests identify which candidates have the personality traits that drive employee success and retention in your open role at your organization. Let’s explore the benefits of using personality testing for hiring.       

1. Organizational adaptability

As technology and the world of work continually shift, your team needs to be able to adapt. Using personality testing for hiring ensures adaptability within your organization. By hiring for soft skills over hard skills, you ensure your candidates have the traits it takes to excel now and into the future. Hard skills can be easily taught, but teaching soft skills is a bigger challenge. 

Personality testing can assess candidates’ flexibility and openness to new experiences to give you insight into candidates’ ability to learn new concepts and performance in the face of change. Hiring candidates with the personality traits you need now and into the future can help you build a team competent enough to thrive in the ever-evolving business landscape.

2. Easy and quick candidate screening

Organizations that use personality testing for hiring enjoy faster talent insights. This often equates to a faster time-to-hire. Personality assessments:

• Provide instant predictions of candidate fit and success to cut down on resume screening
• Can be integrated with applicant tracking systems for seamless candidate evaluation
• Are easy to use as they can be administered online and can include hiring automation
• Many of them are designed to be short to ensure quick insights and candidate completion
• Have user-friendly interfaces to help recruiters quickly narrow talent pools

3. Culture fitness

Every organization has its own culture and core values. Personality tests can uncover candidates’ strengths, motivations, and challenges. Insights into candidates’ attitudes, communication styles, interpersonal skills, and work preferences help employers identify the right fit for their organizational culture. 

With personality assessments, you can identify candidates who will thrive in their immediate and greater team, and align with the organization’s mission and core principles. However, be wary of introducing bias when using a personality assessment to identify culture fit. To build a successful and diverse organization, seek out diverse personalities who can collaborate rather than replicas of your existing team.

4. Higher employee retention

With the cost of replacing an individual employee reaching up to twice the employee’s annual salary, high employee turnover is a problem to be avoided at all costs.

If you’re keen on improving employee retention, using personality testing for hiring is a reliable way to hit your goal. Besides ensuring cultural fitness, personality assessments help match candidates with roles that align with their strengths and preferences. As a result, hires experience high levels of job satisfaction, increasing their chances of staying longer at the organization. 

Personality testing like Cangrade’s also boosts employee retention through employee development opportunities. It identifies areas in the hire’s skills that need improvement. Organizations that offer professional development opportunities enjoy 34% more employee retention than their counterparts who don’t.    

5. Ethical and equitable hiring 

Using personality testing for hiring promotes fairness and equal hiring opportunities in the hiring process. It ensures that candidates’ soft skills are evaluated based on standardized criteria. This consistent method allows all candidates to demonstrate their suitability for the role.

Personality testing also zooms in on objective elements related to the role. This guarantees that hiring decisions are made based on pure merit rather than biased data like where candidates attended college. It stops subjectivity in its tracks and nips unconscious bias in the bud.   

Plus, Cangrade’s personality assessment uses a patented process for removing bias, is EEOC and ADA compliant, and adheres to ethical AI principles to ensure a compliant hiring process that builds DE&I.

6. Enhanced productivity and team chemistry

Another benefit of implementing soft skills testing during hiring is increased productivity. Personality testing highlights candidates’ abilities, giving employers an instant understanding of their strengths and likelihood to succeed in the role. When candidates are hired, employers can be confident that their new hires have the soft skills needed to excel and tailor onboarding and post-hire training to fill any skills gaps. This ensures candidates hit the ground running, helping employers save precious time and money and boosting efficiency.  

What’s more, organizations can enjoy greater team chemistry when they test personality traits during hiring. Personality assessments point out candidates who excel at collaborating and communicating effectively and can work with existing team members. When candidates with the personality traits your team needs are hired, your team will function harmoniously. This breeds respect, trust, and friendship in the workplace.     

Personality testing for hiring can prove immensely beneficial to organizations – from increasing hiring quality and efficiency to boosting retention and team dynamics. Discover how Cangrade’s pre-hire assessment can help you identify your top talent today.